Another piece of functionality requested in the j.u.Objects thread was a
deepEquals(Object a, Object b.) method that "did the right thing" if the
arguments happened to dynamically be arrays.
I've been thinking a bit how this might be implemented.
The array-ness of a and b would need to be determined, after any
up-front null-checks
boolean aIsArray = a.getClass().isArray();
boolean bIsArray = b.getClass().isArray();
followed various case-analyses.
if (aIsArray && bIsArray) {
Class<?> aComponentType = a.getClass().getComponentType();
Class<?> bComponentType = b.getClass().getComponentType();
if (aComponentType == bComponentType) {
// long case analysis to cast and call Arrays.deepEquals if
ComponentType is a reference type
// or the matching Arrays.equals(primitiveComponent[],
primitiveComponent[]) method if
// aComponentType.isPrimitive().
} else
return false;
} else
return a.equals(b);
Certainly a bit messy internally.
What are scenarios where this method would be used?
-Joe